EDITORIAL: Good folks doing good deeds

Published: Wednesday, December 18, 2013 at 04:00 PM.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas, the song tells us. Happily, we live in a community where people also try to help their neighbors have a merry little Christmas. The season seems to bring out the best in everyone.
Just this week, the Daily News wrote about Mike McGowan, a server at Harry T’s in Destin, who gathers loose change. Each December he uses the coins he’s collected to buy toys for Toys for Tots. This year, that meant more than $2,000 spent on toys for the drive plus gifts for individual needy families.
We also reported on Bob and Mary Hauge of Fort Walton Beach, who have been Habitat for Humanity volunteers for 14 years. During that time they’ve helped build 37 homes. “We’re changing the future for the next generation,” Mary said.
We told you about Lions Cup Jamboree 2013, a soccer tournament for middle schoolers, which raised $650 for Sacred Heart Medical Oncology Group in Santa Rosa Beach. The jamboree has featured various service projects since it began five years ago.
And we told you about the very first Helen Back Boot Bowl, which pitted Army, Navy and Air Force flag football teams against one another at Niceville High School’s Eagle Stadium. Spectators were asked to donate $5 to Fisher House of the Emerald Coast, which houses military families on Eglin Air Force Base so they can be near loved ones in the base hospital. About $4,000 was raised.
We brought you three of these stories the same day we reported that the Empty Stocking Fund — a project of the Daily News and the Salvation Army intended to help stressed families — had been fattened with a $25,000 gift from an anonymous donor. That came on the heels of Magnolia Grill’s annual Pancakes With Santa, which raised more than $3,000 for the Empty Stocking.
From now on, the song goes, our troubles will be out of sight. That’s a tough order to fill. But our community’s penny pinchers, home builders and fund raisers are doing their best to ease the troubles faced by the less fortunate.

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Have yourself a merry little Christmas, the song tells us. Happily, we live in a community where people also try to help their neighbors have a merry little Christmas. The season seems to bring out the best in everyone.
Just this week, the Daily News wrote about Mike McGowan, a server at Harry T’s in Destin, who gathers loose change. Each December he uses the coins he’s collected to buy toys for Toys for Tots. This year, that meant more than $2,000 spent on toys for the drive plus gifts for individual needy families.
We also reported on Bob and Mary Hauge of Fort Walton Beach, who have been Habitat for Humanity volunteers for 14 years. During that time they’ve helped build 37 homes. “We’re changing the future for the next generation,” Mary said.
We told you about Lions Cup Jamboree 2013, a soccer tournament for middle schoolers, which raised $650 for Sacred Heart Medical Oncology Group in Santa Rosa Beach. The jamboree has featured various service projects since it began five years ago.
And we told you about the very first Helen Back Boot Bowl, which pitted Army, Navy and Air Force flag football teams against one another at Niceville High School’s Eagle Stadium. Spectators were asked to donate $5 to Fisher House of the Emerald Coast, which houses military families on Eglin Air Force Base so they can be near loved ones in the base hospital. About $4,000 was raised.
We brought you three of these stories the same day we reported that the Empty Stocking Fund — a project of the Daily News and the Salvation Army intended to help stressed families — had been fattened with a $25,000 gift from an anonymous donor. That came on the heels of Magnolia Grill’s annual Pancakes With Santa, which raised more than $3,000 for the Empty Stocking.
From now on, the song goes, our troubles will be out of sight. That’s a tough order to fill. But our community’s penny pinchers, home builders and fund raisers are doing their best to ease the troubles faced by the less fortunate.